ODORIZATION 101

摘要

Odorization is a process and facet of the Natural Gas Industry that is very much misunderstood and is in far too many instances, taken for granted. In essence, odorization of natural gas is a relatively young science having its beginnings in the United States around the early 1900's. It has been regulated by the Federal Government (Department of Transportation) since 1968. Technological innovations have been introduced through the years in Injection Control, Data Acquisition, Quantitative Analysis Instrumentation and even the Odorants themselves. Ironically, one factor has remained the same and that is the methodology used to comply with the regulation (CFR 192-625); the odor level "Sniff Test". Critics today claim that the use of odorometers does not offer a valid test and are very subjective in nature. Some comments center on the age of the technology and the need for a state of the art replacement. The bottom line is that many gas companies have used the existing odor level test instruments effectively and successfully. Their results serve to confirm and document that their odorizing system is doing its job in providing "readily detectable" odorant levels for customer protection. We will discuss in this paper what procedures these companies maintain to assure a successful use or odorometers.